Part unnecessary and part disfunctional, many of the features that came along with iOS 26 (Apple’s latest software update, released on September 15, 2025) are unpleasant. Phones that are more than three years old (iPhone 14 and below) miss out on many of the best features due to outdated hardware and instead must deal with continual lag, battery drainage, and excessive heat generation. The features that do work for all phones are largely unnecessary, like another photos app redesign and a change in lock screen mechanisms.
Doesn’t Work for Older Phones
After updating, all iPhones have a 3-5 day period of lag to accommodate the new features. Users of phones released before iPhone 14 have reported longer-lasting lag. New and previously existing features are laggy on these older phones. The new software requires an amount of processing power that phones with older hardware can’t achieve as easily as a newer phone.
There is an also initial period of increased battery usage and heat generation for all phones right after updating. This battery drainage and heat generation gets exponentially larger for older phones, again due to the outdated hardware.
Features Only Available for iPhone 14 and Up
Immediately after updating, I was excited to use new features I had heard about, like Genmoji and visual intelligence. Genmoji is the ability to create your own emojis, and visual intelligence allows the iPhone camera to inform the user about what they focus the camera on (i.e. the history of a building or species of a plant). Both Genmoji and visual intelligence are available only for iPhone 15 pro and up. Additionally, live translation is available only for iPhones 15 pro and later, and automatic notifications for when the camera is dirty are available only for iPhones 15 and later.
At the end of last month, the iPhone 13 was the most used iPhone. The most popular phone does not have access to many of the newest features, which will likely prompt many to upgrade.
Photo Shuffle Background
My niche least-favorite feature of iOS 26 is the change to photo-shuffle backgrounds. I use the photo shuffle on tap feature for my lock screen. Under iOS 18, this feature switched photos seamlessly on tap. Under iOS 26, it, for a lack of a better word, blinks, between photos. This is one of multiple seemingly useless updates made in iOS 26.
Why iOS 26?
Some iPhone users have expressed confusion around the name of iOS 26, which directly follows iOS 18. Since 2007, Apple software updates have been titled 1-18, in order. This year, the company jumped from 18 to 26 in compliance with a new naming convention that attaches the update to the release year.
